Day 42, Noon: The Twin Pine Restaurant

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie took the long way around, practically making it a tour of the entire town. She collared--not literally, since the nurses would've thrown fits--a few random citizens along the way, asked as many inconspicuous sounding questions as possible, and then moved on. Wash, rinse, repeat. Sneaking a few covert glimpses into stores and windows

Comments

[high_prosecutor]

"That sounds about par for the course," Miles said dryly, motioning with his pen. "It lines up with what I've experienced, and what I've gathered from those who are willing to talk about it. In my own case, a whole lot of drugs and a painful childhood memory," he said, dropping his voice low. He looked around to be sure no one was within earshot before continuing.

"My...partner and I were both taken at different times, and the results of the experiments tend to complement our usual roles back at home, to an extent. I have an internal danger radar - " he paused, laughing at his own description "- and he...well. It's something of a lie detector, though less specific. It can tell when someone's hiding a secret, though he's not the kind to actually use that against someone without a very strong reason behind it."

Now, that was interesting. Miles raised an eyebrow at the 'two-faced jerk' comment. His own senses hadn't reacted during their conversation, after all, and they would have, he thought. "And as for that question? I would like to think I would do the same."

He smiled across the table. "Likewise. I'm not much of a physical fighter, but let's just say I've been here long enough to have met a lot of people. If you need any of those connections, let me know."

[thatdamnedninja]

"Seriously. I'd complain about it being boring, but the more predictable these guys stay, the better it is for us." What was it with Landel and his drug fetish? And the paperwork fetish? And the Japan fetish? Bastard had issues. His issues had issues. She could quite happily punch him in the throat with both hands and follow it up by kicking his nose right out of the back of his head, simply -- simply because. How screwed up was it, how perfectly screwed up was it, that she could sit at a table over lunch and talk about living nightmares like they were normal?

Because after Hojo, after Sephiroth and ShinRa and waking up in Landel's Institute, that's what the nightmares were; totally. Goddamn. Normal.

Fortunately, Miles interrupted her runaway train of thought by making her choke on lemonade. Thanks, dude. Thanks a bunch. "Danger radar? Lie detector?" Remind her never to meet this 'partner', whoever he was. Yuffie and her lies were like noodles and ramen; it was a fact of life that you didn't really get one without the other. She coughed a few times, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. "My experience with those experiments has been that the cons outweigh the pros. Somebody I know from back home, they kinda -- well, they did something totally weird, so she's kind of been on a see-saw between 'normal', 'confused', and 'berserk'."

Hello, raised eyebrow. Yuffie matched it with one of her own. "You got another impression of him?" Interesting, if that really was the case. Maybe it was just because she poked and prodded and bugged him until he had to drop the pretence of professionalism?

"Will do," she added, in response to Miles' offer. "I, uh, wouldn't really need to take you up on the other thing, anyway. The physical fighter bit. Being a ninja, n' all. Anyway, I've got some pretty good connections with the History Club, but networking is cool and I'll probably take you up on that at some point. Anybody you can recommend in general?"